Song Shenzong And Xi Feng Reform

During North-Song Dynasty, Song Shenzong was an emperor whose life was permeated with the reform ?he launched, organized and led Xi Feng Reform. During the Xi Feng period, Song shenzong, putting in an important position the group of ministers in favor of the reform with Wang Anshi as their leader, initiated new policies, and controlled the overall situation of the reform. During the period when Wang Anshi was dismissed for the second time and later the whole Yuan Feng period, Song Shenzong monopolized all powers of the reform to himself and continued to advance the reform. The present thesis discusses systematically the relation between Song Shenzong and Xi Feng Reform from new ken and multiple perspectives, using the research method of historical materialism and dialectical materialism. The thesis affirms that Song Shenzong played a leading role in the reform. The thesis consists of five parts. Part One introduces the social crises of the North-Song Dynasty and the appearance of reform thoughts. Part Two takes up the two formative stages of Song Shenzong抯 reform thoughts. Part three first explains Song Shenzong抯 appointment principles and then discusses the gradual consolidation of Song Shenzong抯 controlling power of the reform. This consolidation can be divided into four stages. Part four discusses from two respects Song Shenzong抯 role in the reform. Concluding remarks come in Part Five. When he was bent on reform to get his country rich and strong, Song Shenzong went on strengthening the influence of imperial power on the reform, which was beneficial to the firm enforcement of the reform. However, the excessively strengthened imperial power was contradictory with the purpose of changing the situation of 揟hree kinds of redundancy? and 揟wo kinds of age-old abuses? Therefore, excessively strengthened imperial power is assumed to be the root cause of the failure of Xi Feng Reform.